Mt 19:23-30 Wealth and Intelligence

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week In Ordinary Time

(Click here for readings)Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Amen I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of an needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”The last shall be first. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” The Lord said to them, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”Everyone loves an underdog? Everyone loves a humble person. No one likes an arrogant and prideful person.The atheist and zoologist Richard Dawkins has accomplished a feat typical of so many other atheists: He has managed to insult over one billion people. He recently tweeted the following:

The reaction against him was swift. Writer and Independent columnist Owen Jones responded: “How dare you dress your bigotry up as atheism. You are now beyond an embarrassment.”The problem with this statement is that far too many atheists routinely dress their atheism with religious bigotry. They routinely mock and ridicule religion AND religious people. Now not all atheists are like this; but unfortunately, the most influential ones appear to be. After all, more people follow Richard Dawkin’s religious bigotry than Westboro Baptist Church’s anti-gay and anti-Catholic bigotry!I think I have finally understood what G.K. Chesterton meant when he wrote: “If God did not exist, then atheists would not exist.” He meant that atheists need religion in order to give meaning to their cause; otherwise what would they talk about? What would they write about? Who would they mock? So although atheists cannot exist without religion, religious can exist perfectly fine with atheists. They can talk about their God and share their personal experiences with God. They can write about and explain their creed, their cult and their code of conduct. Most of us know that atheists openly mock religion. What most of us don’t know is that they actually sell it. There’s one atheist company that prides itself (and sells its stuff) on mocking religion. Here are some fine examples:

“Science flies you to the moon…” Yes, it does. It also builds A-bombs and provides a delivery system for them to reach their destination. Are you surprised? Notice also how careful they are in saying religion and not religious. That would make their hatred too obvious.We know from recent history how mocking an entire group of people and placing them all in one category can easily lead to the hatred and genocide of an entire group of people. Now not all atheists buy Richard Dawkin’s quotes, but let’s not forget that this highly intelligent, highly scientific, highly rational and well educated zoologist currently has nearly one million followers on his twitter account.Wow…that’s scary! I thought education was suppose to eliminate bigotry and racism? My favorite atheist t-shirt reads: “I think, therefore, I’m an atheist.”Richard Dawkins definitely thinks a lot about himself.

Now I’m no saint. And far too often I think too much about myself! I shouldn’t. I know better. And so all this makes me wonder: Does being “intelligent” have the same effect as being “rich”? Does it go to our brains? Does it make us feel omnipotent? Does it make us feel superior towards others? Does it make us feel better about ourselves? Is it any different from being religiously self-righteous?“Jesus became poor although he was rich…” (2Cor 8:9).You have to wonder. (0)